RE+ Vegas Grid Edge Theater Live Micro Grid Demonstration of Ampra Grid Joule Controller
Grid controllers come in various shapes and sizes, but the RE+ Vegas 2025 Grid Edge Theater demonstrated something more significant than hardware diversity. Direct Energy Partners, Sol-Ark, and Ampra Grid joined forces to showcase a live microgrid in action, incorporating lithium iron phosphate batteries alongside fuel cells to power a variety of DC and 3-phase AC loads in real time during the show.
The 30kW 3-phase 208V inverter and 40kWh battery showcased are part of a robust product line offered by Sol-Ark, who has over 5 years of experience powering 3-phase commercial microgrids in the USA, with various indoor and outdoor battery options.
Direct Energy Partners (DEP), a subsidiary of ABB, provided a controller for DEP's scalable AC and DC facility architecture, typically used for commercial buildings, data centers, DC microgrids, or multiple renewable sources. DEP is SunSpec compliant for Modbus TCP/IP, but Sol-Ark speaks a different version of Modbus. So Ampra Grid used its Joule controller to act as a translator.
The overall timeline for the project was just a few weeks, so it was encouraging to see it operating successfully at the show. This bodes well for broader microgrid adoption, showing that various communication protocols are robust enough for device interoperability and that projects can take advantage of various control services to accomplish different goals.
Ampra Grid's focus is on economic optimization, and the Joule's included OptimaEngine service focuses on optimizing the inverter's economic performance beyond standard inverter controls. Global inverter manufacturers focus on electrical performance and safety but often leave significant economic value on the table by not responding specifically to the client's commercial rate structure, load profile, actual system performance, and more.
But this project shows we're capable of taking on custom projects where economics might not be the priority, but the custom project requirements are reasonable. On this project, the Joule acted as a local Modbus server, but on another project it might act as a VPP client. Or just a simple way to get useful, actionable project reports sent to where they need to go.
One of the most frequently encountered questions we got about Ampra Grid was "Do you offer more than a 3-year pricing plan or warranty?" The answer is yes, we'll meet project timeline requirements with custom subscription pricing. Our published pricing goal is to standardize controller pricing so you can budget for it and, if needed, evaluate our total value for hardware and services against the à la carte pricing options of other controls companies.
When you buy our controller through distribution, it includes 3 years of our Joule OptimaEngine for economic optimization along with a built-in data plan, modem, and antenna. We try to make our controller as turnkey as possible—the magic box you always wanted for your ESS site.
Not all sites need a long-term contract. Some sites just need to be launched successfully and we price to sell to those projects too. We're not trying to lock in pricing for decades and we do offer customized long term service agreements which might cost as little as a data plan with some consulting hours built in. But three years from now will look very different from today in our industry, so we're not trying to lock anyone into a long term agreement. We want to help you launch successfully, meet your goals, and help you achieve optimized project economics based on the facility electric rate without interrupting and pre-existing DERMS response capability of the inverter.
Honestly, it's not like VPP should be ignored, and it shouldn't, but peak shaving sites are where the Ampra Grid Joule controller is needed most. This is because economic modeling software will deliver optimized results, but most inverters on the market do not deliver optimized project economics out of the box. Most industrial projects use control services, but residential installers entering the commercial market may be completely unaware of controllers as a product category and therefore fail to meet their project economic goals. That why we focus on peak shaving so much in our marketing, its the problem we want to solve. But we can help partners implement VPP services with our hardware and data options.
This show featured a lot of controllers. It was exciting to see ComAp a few booths down from the Grid Edge Theater stage. The ComAp controller provides many advanced features within accessible user interfaces—both literal GUIs, digital interfaces, and analog controls. It's a different kind of ecosystem that's more focused on the backup side of facility management, which is great because the Joule OptimaEngine is much more focused on optimizing the economics of the grid side of microgrids. Together, it's a very powerful combination.
What I realized while watching the controllers at the show was that microgrids don't need just a single controller. Commercial microgrids will likely need multiple controllers as the market matures. CoMap doesn't do what DEP does. Neither do what Ampra Grid does. So the future isn't about finding the one perfect controller. Instead it's about intelligent ecosystems where specialized controllers work together to optimize the overall system.
We demonstrated at the Grid Edge Theater the successful combination of different mature protocols made possible with just a few manhours of time from deep domain industry experts. Sophisticated, interoperable solutions will inevitably be drivers of widespread microgrid adoption.
Now that we're at the end of the article, I wanted to honorably mention the E-Merge Alliance which is a non-profit that promotes a "grid of grids" concept which at the very least seems to be SunSpec inclusive, which is great. They have SEIA, SEPA, and NREL as members. Through industry sponsorship (special thanks Black and Veatch!) they produced the Grid Edge theater which paid for the actual booth space and staging. If you are a RE+ exhibitor, I would steer you towards RE+ Source Pro. It's not something I'm terribly familiar with, but it looked important for marketing managers to know about and support if exhibiting at RE+ events. Since they produced the demonstration, they get to take home the best microgrid sponsor award as far as this blog post goes.
